In the Ramayana, my incandescent strengthdid resolute my character and self-respect.That was my aura, not to acknowledge opposing infringements.

Trijala was another form of Sita in myincarceration, in our fellow feeling and feminine bonding.I was the spark in Mandoodari, who

questioned her husband Ravana poignantlyeven on his deathbed. I was in Urmila,in her patient waiting, her merciful self-control.

I was in Draupadi, who wandered with herfive husbands in the forest for twelve yearsand got disrobed in the Kuru Sabha in

their silent protest. I got burnt with my humiliationin her sinuous open hair. And I lived in herplatonic love for her sakha, Lord Krishna.

I lived in Nirbhaya, gang-raped in amoving Delhi bus; I struggled, I survived, I perished,enkindling the fire of truth amongst mankind.

I have heard, Ravana was a great scholar,A yogic personality, who poised ‘Shiva Tandava Stotra.’ Then how could he desire another’s wife?

I was never the subdued woman as painted inTulsidas’ Ramacharitamanas. I was eternallypure, eternally chaste. Sufi poet Mullah Masiha

has likened me to the soul. Like soulthat is eternally covered by the body, Sitais infinitely covered by clothes, never disrobed.

…

(There are a little more than three hundred versions of the Ramayana written over the centuries since Valmiki first wrote it. My poem Sita is, in no way, a retelling of The Ramayana. It is, rather, penned as a poetic memoir of the heroine of the epic, Sita, told in the first person narrative. Sita(A Poem) is seminal to my thoughts on life that find expression in the creative impulse of literature. It has always been with me, sometimes haunting and at others, fuelling the mind in all thought and action. In that sense, it could perhaps be one of my most ambitious, endearing ecofeministic poems. One long poem, it’s presented in 25 sections/cantos. This is a small part of the 24th Canto and the complete 25th Canto of the long poem.)

About the poet

Dr.Nandini Sahu is an Associate Professor of English in IGNOU, New Delhi, India. She is a poet,creative writer and literary critic; is the author/editor of eleven books, and has several research papers published in India, U.S.A., U.K. and Pakistan. Her areas of research interest cover New Literatures, Critical Theory, Folklore and Culture Studies, Children’s Literature, American Literature and ELT. She is the Chief Editor of two bi-annual refereed journals, Interdisciplinary Journal of Literature and Language(IJLL) and Panorama Literaria(PL).

World’s first major ecopoetry award. With a first prize of £5,000 for the best single poem embracing ecological themes, the award ranks amongst the highest of any English language single poem competition. Second prize is £2,000 and third prize £1,000.